4:10 PM, December 21, 2012

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- Twins from Portage who were artificially conceived after their father’s death are not eligible to collect survivor benefits from the Social Security Administration, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled today.

When the twins’ dad, Jeffrey Mattison, got sick, he froze some of his sperm so the chemotherapy he was about to undergo wouldn’t prevent him and his wife Pamela from having more children.

When Mattison died in 2001, his wife used the banked sperm and conceived twins -- Mallory and Michael -- who were born about 10 months after their father’s death.

The Social Security Administration refused to treat the twins as Jeffrey Mattison’s heirs and grant them survivor benefits of a few hundred dollars a month, saying the children didn’t “survive” their dad because they were conceived after his death.

Pamela Mattison sued.

In an opinion released today, the Michigan Supreme Court said the position that the federal agency took is consistent with state law.

“The statute … does not allow the twins to inherit from Jeffrey because the twins were not conceived or born during plaintiff and Jeffrey’s marriage given that the marriage legally terminated upon Jeffrey’s death,” the court said in an opinion written by Justice Marilyn Kelly and joined by Justices Stephen Markman, Diane Hathaway, Mary Beth Kelly and Brian Zahra.

Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh wrote a concurring opinion, saying the majority opinion was legally correct but “lamentable.” They urged the Legislature to address the issue.

Chief Justice Robert Young, Jr. said he would have declined to answer the certified question sent from federal court. Young, who agreed with the law stated by the court’s majority, said the issue was clear enough that the federal court should have been able to rule without sending a certified question to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Victor Bland, Pamela Mattison’s attorney, said he would comment after he read the opinion.